Chapter 4
Crevice and Business
Sunset Shimmer watched as the bus slowly moved towards the gate of the strange city. They were only a few cars away from the gate that Grey had steered them towards, and sunset noticed that there were only very large vehicles going through this one. All the smaller cars, as well as the horse-drawn carts and people on foot had formed lines in front of the smaller openings to the left of them. After a few minutes, Grey moved the bus forward and they were the next ones to go into the gate.
As they drove into the giant arched tunnel that made up the city wall gate, they were obscured by the shadows, and Grey flicked on the roof-mounted lights.
Moving up to a window set in the left side of the tunnel, Grey turned to the girls and said, "Here, I've got to secure our admission papers to get into the city, why don't you girls go back and sit down. If the gate guard sees you all here it'll raise some questions and make this more bothersome."
"Are you smuggling us in or something?" Twilight asked.
"No, but if you're all up here with me it's going to make things harder for me, and if you get asked a question, you won't know how to respond to it. So I ask again, can you all please go back and sit down? You can still talk, but just keep the singing down until we're through, okay?"
"Okay."
"Alright."
"Sure!"
"Fine by me."
"Thank you," Grey replied, as the seven girls moved back to the booth. A conversation started up at once, but Sunset Shimmer stopped after a few steps, where she leaned up against the wall of the bus, just out of sight of the driver's window, so she could hear what was going on between Grey and the guard.
Grey inched the bus along until his window was directly beside the guardhouse window set into the tunnel wall and opened it about ten centimeters.
Even before he looked over, Grey could tell who the guard on duty was by the god-awful death metal music coming from the window.
"Hey Grey, you're cutting it pretty close, don't you know the meeting's in only two days?" the guard asked cheerfully.
"Hello Morrison, I see you still feel the need to put your nose into other people's business. If you hadn't noticed, I've never missed a single meeting since I joined. And turn off that horrible screeching, you're going to bring the damn city walls down."
"Hey, hey," Morrison chided, "this song's a classic. You're just prejudiced against heavy metal."
"Maybe I am, but this song sucked even before it had a heavy metal cover of it remixed all to hell and back. The only original part of the crap you call music is the tempo."
"No way man! I'm telling you, this is a classic!"
Grey rubbed his temple with one hand.
"You don't even know what that means, do you? Wait, don't answer that, we've wasted enough time already."
"Alright, okay, fine. You win. Now what do you want?"
"Umm, hello? I'm trying to get in the city, remember? It's your job to file people through, you moron. Quit blanking out!"
"Hey! Don't call me a moron, or I'll get the Shift Sergeant!" Morrison threatened, his pudgy face reddening in anger.
"I've already talked to your Shift Sergeant twice before, remember? And he agrees with me. So do your damn job and quit your moping, I want to book into a motel or hotel before nightfall."
"Fine, have it your way," Morrison huffed.
"Large vehicle permission form. Purpose of visit?"
"Trade," Grey said.
"Alright, gotta give you the Merchant Council Stamp. Hold on just a second, it's gotta be here somewhere…" Morrison muttered as he started searching his desk for the stamp.
"Aha!" he exclaimed producing a small stamp from a cluttered drawer.
"Here we go. Now, what's next… oh yeah, length of stay?"
"Two to five weeks."
"Ok, would you like to pay an insurance fee for us to keep a second copy of your papers?"
"No, I'll be fine."
"And lastly, number of passengers? Huh, even I know that one. One. You never travel with any-"
"Wrong. Not one this time, Morrison. It's eight," Grey stated.
"Eight!?" Morrison cried, "I hope you're not planning on fighting a gang war while you're here, Grey. Jeez, I've rarely seen you with one other person whenever you're here, let alone seven. But fine, fine. Please print their genders and ages on the lines provided," Morrison said, passing the slip of paper through the windows to Grey.
Grey took out a pen, filling in both his, and his passenger's genders and ages, before passing the form back through the window.
Morrison took one look at the information written down on the form and his face instantly lit up.
"You've got seven teenage girls in there!? Damn, you must be having the time of your life! Do you think I can borrow a couple of them later this evening, when my shift ends?"
"Shut it Morrison. Get your head out of your ass, they're here on business," Grey growled at him.
"Riiight, business, I'm sure. C'mon, tell me, are they pretty high up?"
"What?" Gray asked, "What are you talking about?"
"I mean, are they at least easy to look at? Come on man, give me a few details, is one of them at least an eight?" Morrison said, winking at Grey, to which Grey responded with a stony expression of his own.
"Are we done yet?" Grey asked.
"Almost, almost," Morrison said, partially regaining his composure as he looked at the entrance permit again, "I just need to count it all up and you've got to sign it, so you take full responsibility," Morrison replied.
As Morrison gave back the admittance permit, he filled out a receipt and started reading off of it.
"Alright, so that will come to seven Silver Plarts for the bus, four to allow you to trade, and two Plarts per person, which comes to a total of twenty-seven Silver Plarts value."
Grey finished signing and reached into a pocket, from which he produced a small pouch. As Sunset Shimmer watched, Grey pulled out a handful of small, flat, silver squares and counted out twenty-seven, which he gave to Morrison in exchange for the receipt.
"Okay, enjoy your stay," Morrison said cheerfully, pushing a button that caused the large metal gate in front of them to raise and give them access to the interior of the city.
"Now I can," Grey muttered to himself as he closed the window and drove forward.
Sunset Shimmer walked up to Grey as he maneuvered through the short, dark tunnel.
"Hey, I heard what you said to that guy, why were you being so mean to him? I mean, just because he's different from you doesn't mean you have to be so hostile towards him."
Grey rolled his eyes. She obviously had no idea what Morrison had been talking about most of the time.
"I'm mean to him because he's not worth being nice to, and it's not like I'm mean to him for no reason, I just can't stand him, he's so tiresome."
"Still, he didn't seem like he deserved that."
"You don't know him, okay? And I wish I didn't, but he's loud, fat, lazy, rude, absentminded, and obnoxious, so I try not to associate with him, and I don't want you girls associating with him either. Do you understand?"
Sunset Shimmer was a bit taken aback by the small outburst from Grey, but she bit back her retort and just nodded dumbly.
Just then, the bus emerged from the tunnel into the streets of the city, right in front of an intersection.
Anything that Sunset wanted to talk to Grey about was instantly wiped from her mind as she took in the entirety of the city from ground level.
"Hey girls? We're inside the walls. You can come up front and see now if you want," Grey called back to the rest of the group.
The other six girls came rushing forward and their jaws collectively dropped as they finally got their first good look at the city of Crevice. The buildings, which towered over them, were all hard edges and sharp angles, made of blue-grey metal and dark concrete, with flat, bladelike towers reaching into the stormy sky, and jutting silver balconies that wrapped around them looked like metal ribs.
Lights of all colors shone and blinked along the streets, which were packed with all manner and assortment of heavily modified and unrecognizable vehicles. Huge, green-tinted machines clung to the sides of buildings like spiders, or else squatted low on the ground, looking like miniature factories. People from all walks of life could be seen hurrying down the walkways.
There, Rarity saw an elegantly dressed couple step into an ornate, wooden, horse-drawn carriage, and there, Sunset Shimmer watched as two kids ran off with a pouch of some sort, being chased by two men in dark blue uniforms, before they disappeared into a network of tunnels set into the base of a large, low building.
Pinkie instantly noticed fireworks going off over a distant corner of the city, while Applejack watched street vendors quickly pack their stands away and hurry to get out of the rain.
Twilight spotted a tall, gangly robot twist its way through the crowded throng of people on the sidewalks; Fluttershy couldn't keep her eyes off the pet owners, as both disgusting and beautiful creatures on leashes were protected by an owner's umbrella, or else rolled in puddles on the ground; Rainbow Dash looked at a huge screen that hung from the side of a building, showing footage of a sport that consisted of three teams, two goal areas, and what looked like rocket-powered hang gliders.
Grey watched the girls with a calm smile on his face, feeling slightly amused by the girls being overwhelmed be their first visit to the city.
"Well girls, welcome to the great and magnificent city of Crevice!"
Grey pulled over by an inn in a quiet part of town, the luminescent sign over the door reading, Sleepy Creek Inn. It had stopped raining by now, leaving a light mist in its wake.
Shutting the bus down, he let the girls file out before him, so he could lock the vehicle up behind him. Walking to the office, Grey noticed that many of the girls looked extremely tired, and a couple were even leaning on each other for support.
I'll have to get some food into them before we go to sleep too I suppose, uhh, this'll be even more expenses. I just hope they manage to start making the money back soon, he thought. Coming back to the present, he walked into the small, cramped inn's office behind the group of half-asleep teens. Pushing his way to the front, he found himself beside Sunset Shimmer, and addressed the innkeeper.
"Hi, we'd like a few rooms for the night. Do you have any vacancies?"
"Yeah, we got a couple," said the innkeeper, a middle-aged, bored looking lady with strange glasses.
Grey turned to the girls and asked, "Hey, how many rooms do you think you'll need? Two? Three?"
Sunset Shimmer took a moment to talk with the others, and then said, "We'll be fine with one room. We want to stay together for this first night. Is that okay?"
Grey looked at her blankly before turning to the innkeeper.
"If that's what you girls want. Hey, do you have any large rooms available?"
"We do, but none with enough beds for seven people. If you want I can fetch extra blankets for you though."
"That sounds fine. We'll take two rooms then, one with a single bed, and the largest room you have available."
The innkeeper motioned to an assistant sitting in an adjoining room and told him to lead the group to their rooms as Grey paid for them. The assistant took the keys to their respective rooms and took the group to them, opening the rooms and letting everyone in, before leaving the keys with someone from each room.
For the first time in several hours, Sunset Shimmer and her friends had complete privacy. Sunset still didn't know what to think about Grey, but now they had some time truly away from him, so they wouldn't have to keep their voices in check when talking about him.
As the seven of them started getting ready to try to sleep in the room, which was only about the size of a modest sitting room and had two beds, Sunset Shimmer plopped herself down into a corner, and took out the journal, intending to write Princess Twilight a response. As she looked at the others, their Twilight had just taken Spike out of his backpacky prison, and was giving him some dog treats she always carried around. Sunset's stomach began to growl, and she decided that just after she finished her letter to Princess Twilight, they would all find something to eat.
Grabbing one of the extra blankets the assistant innkeeper had brought, she wrapped it around herself, suddenly feeling cold.
Getting a pen out, she started writing:
Dear Princess Twilight…
Sunset woke up to find herself in the same position she had been in when writing her letter. All that was written on the page was "Dear Princess Twilight." She also realized that in her sleep, she had drooled over the page.
Aww, no! I hope that doesn't get sent to the Twilight, after which she giggled, imagining alicorn Twilight opening the other journal, only to see a few words and a patch of drool.
Looking around the room, she noticed that everyone else was asleep, either in awkward positions like she was, or just collapsed under blankets on the floor or in the beds.
Waking up a bit more, she realized why she had woken up.
A gentle knocking could be heard coming from the door of their room.
It's probably Grey, I bet he's one of those early-morning types and wants us to get to work already, she thought as she stifled a yawn and walked over to the door. Looking sown, she realized she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday.
Shaking her head, she opened the door to see Grey standing in the hallw-
It wasn't Grey.
And it wasn't either of the Innkeepers she had seen last night either. There was a man with dark, greased hair and a leather jacket, surrounded by similar looking characters, all of whom carried guns and evil smiles.
Sunset barely had time to register the scene before her when the men came rushing into the room with ropes and blindfolds. She didn't even have time to scream.
Grey woke up to a pounding coming from his door. He had gone to bed later last night, after the girls. When he was done setting up his room the way he like it, he had come out and gently knocked on the door of the room the girls were staying in, but the only response he got from that was quiet snoring coming from beyond, so he had gone out and gotten something to eat, before crashing on the bed back in his room and falling asleep.
Now, as he opened the door, pistol at the ready, he was confronted with the sight of the young, bald man that had bought them to their rooms last night. He looked very frightened and had a bandage over his head.
"Sir, M-mister Grey, sir?" He asked tentatively.
"Yeah? What is it? What happened to you?"
"Sir, I regret to inform you, but last night while everyone was sleeping a group of men snuck in, laid me and my employer unconscious, and kidnapped your companions." He replied.
"What!?" Grey yelled.
"What do you mean? They're gone? All of them?"
"Ye-yes sir. I've already contacted the Crevice City Security Forces, but the kidnappers seemed to have left a note for you." Taking out a small, crumpled piece of paper from his back pocket, the inn assistant gave it to Grey and left for the front desk.
Looking at the slip in his hands, Grey read, "It's just business, old pal."
He had just been told by the kidnappers themselves who had kidnapped his new apprentices. And he was going to have to get creative to get them back.
Sunset woke up once again, only this time, she was sitting down, tied to a chair, and from what she could see, she was in a medium-sized, office-like room with no windows. The others were there as well, similarly bound, and like herself, they were all gagged. Several more men who looked like greasers, no doubt part of the kidnapper's gang, were lounging around on couches or chairs, and one man was looking through the contents of a mini-fridge. In a corner of the room lay all of the girls' backpacks and personal things, piled up against the wall, along with Spike, who was muzzled and tied to a heating pipe beside the pile.
There was a door in the wall beside her, which opened for a second, and through it stepped the same man that had knocked on her door that morning. Past him came the sounds of music that would have been acceptable at a bar, or quiet nightclub, as well as the sounds of arguments and several people drunkenly singing.
Sunset then realized out of all the girls, she was the only one without a blindfold.
She watched in terror as the man walked up to her and crouched in front of her. All thoughts of how to escape this strange new place vanished as he looked her up and down, a menacing glint in his eyes.
"Lookie here, you're awake, huh?" he said in a silky voice.
"Well don't worry, we won't hurt you. You're going to be a delivery for a paying customer of ours. You should feel honored, he paid a high price for you girls.
Several more men came through the same door, filling the room, and making it just the tiniest bit cramped.
Standing up, the man did nothing more to the tied up teens, but went over to one of the other thugs and held a whispered conversation with him
Sunset managed to pick out a few bits of what they were saying.
"… ou mean he didn't… ell were is h… if he's much later I'll just take them as collat… yeah, I know the contract… course there's a time lim…"
Sunset used the opportunity to try and look behind her. Only being able to see a fraction past her shoulder, she caught a glimpse of rainbow-colored hair. Rainbow Dash was right behind her. Sidling up closer to the chair Rainbow Dash was in without causing any suspicion took a couple minutes.
When she finally felt her bound hands brush up against Rainbow Dash's, she nudged her to get her attention, but Rainbow didn't respond. Fearing she might be dead, she listened held her breath and listened carefully, and eventually heard the slight sound of Rainbow Dash breathing.
So she wasn't dead, just unconscious, that's a relief, Sunset thought.
Suddenly a knocking could be heard from the door to the room. Some of the thugs pointed their guns at it, but the man who looked to be in charge calmly walked over to it, sipping from a drink, and opened it to the newcomer.
It was Grey.
This was obviously not the "customer" that the man was expecting, because at first sight of him, he spat out his drink and immediately reached for a pistol in his back pocket.
All of the kidnappers fanned out and surrounded Grey, weapons pointing at him from all directions as he stepped into the room, unfazed by the angry and incredulous men with guns around him. Instead he walked straight up to the leader, who had a look in his eyes that said he'd rather be anywhere but there at the moment.
Grey wasn't wearing his gas mask, but he did have his long overcoat and wide grey hat on.
"Cardley, what a pleasant surprise. I'm so grateful you found my apprentices for me. However, what are they doing tied up like this? I can only assume you just came here at the same time as I did and found them like this." He said in a calm voice, but Sunset heard the threatening menace in it.
"Grey! I, uhh, wasn't expecting to see you here. Why'd you come?" Cardley said.
"You know damn well why I'm here Cardley, now hand them over, or we're going to have a disagreement pretty soon."
"Ha, you old joker you. I see you got my note. You got it a little earlier than I expected, but it's all the same. The note did say that this was just business. You're a businessman, can't you understand that?" Cardley asked.
"Oh yes, business is definitely business Cardley, I have absolutely no quarrels with you there, but since you kidnapped my apprentices, it's now my business to find out what your business is. And from the looks of things, you've gone back into slave trading, haven't you?" Grey growled. Sunset hadn't heard this tone in his voice before. Normally his voice was calm and level, if not bored sounding, but now it was low and grinded like the engine of a bulldozer. She heard a different Grey, and she really didn't think she wanted to see any more of it.
"Hey, it's the best paying job I've ever had, alright? And it comes with considerably low risk to myself, which is hard to come by in a job these days. Besides, I know you, you rarely have apprentices, and no one's crazy enough to take on seven at once. So since you're not having any fun with them, a client of mine contacted me last night and told me he wanted them. And trust me, there's no way you can negotiate your way out of this one, he offered more money than you could hope to overcome with any bribe. So just walk away for old time's sake, and we'll let you go." Cardley started relaxing as he talked, his stance had lost its tension and that evil smile had crawled its way back up onto his face.
"You're sure we can't make a business deal out of this?" Grey asked.
"Positive."
"Well then, I guess I've got no choice in the matter."
In an instant, Grey's hand was up at shoulder level, holding something, and he threw open the front of his coat. Everyone in the room responded, fingers tensing on triggers, until Cardley realized just what Grey had done.
"Stop! Hold your fire, I said hold it!" He screamed at the other thugs.
"He's gonna blow us up if we shoot!"
Underneath his coat, Grey had strapped several kilograms of explosives to himself, and in his hand held a small detonator. If he were to detonate it in a room the size of the one they were in at the moment, there wouldn't be enough of anyone left afterwards to be able to hold a funeral for.
Hell, Sunset Shimmer doubted everyone's remains would fit in a shoebox if those bombs went off.
"Didn't you hear me, goddamn it? I said put your guns down!" Cardley screamed at the top of his lungs.
Slowly, one by one, the other men lowered their weapons from Grey, who went over and put his free hand on Cardley's shoulder.
"Now, you're going to have your boys untie all the girls and give them their things back. Cardley nodded and his men went over to a corner to retrieve the teen's possessions.
Seeing Spike for the first time, Grey gave Sunset Shimmer a suspicious look, but said nothing, while they were all untied and brought to him. They were all awake now, Cardley's yelling having woken up any who were still unconscious at that point.
"Thank you. That's a good boy," Grey said to Cardley, making him go red in the face.
"Now, open the door. And all of you stay in here," Grey instructed the men, none of whom dared disobey him.
Before they managed to leave however, Cardley scrambled up behind them, his voice going shrill, "Come on man, come on! Why'd you have to take it so personally? It's just business, just business!"
"I agree, Cardley, you're right," said Grey. With one quick, fluid movement of his free hand, he pulled out his large-bore revolver and pointed it straight at the man's head. The last thing Cardley heard before a bullet seared through his brain and erased his entire being was, "It's just business."
